GOD and Football: Book Review +

Earlier this summer my wife and I took a quick trip to Fairhope, Alabama. While perusing through a local store I ran across this book by Chad Gibbs. I was hesitant to buy it, after all I only have about 25 other books on my “to be read shelf.” However, I was persuaded to buy it after two complete strangers observed me looking at it, and spoke up to say, “That’s a good book.” Do you know what, they were right!

 

Throughout the book Chad openly struggles with his god-like obsession with SEC football. As a Christian he wants to be defined by his faith in Jesus, but often finds his self-worth coming from his Auburn Tigers. . The book documents Chad’s 2009 adventure in which he visited every SEC town for a football game on Saturday and a local Church service on Sunday. I cried when I read this book. Not because it’s sad, but because Chad is my kind of funny. I really appreciated his humor toward each SEC School and each Christian denomination he visited. I’ve posted some of my favorite excerpts below:

• I was born again, again, and my second honeymoon with God lasted all of about four weeks.
  
• Then came the 2008 season. Auburn’s Book of Job.
  
• Why do I spend all my money to go watch something that only makes me angry? And why do I waste so much of the precious time I’ve been given eating, sleeping, and drinking a game played by college kids I’ve never met? And as a Christian I have to ask, why do I worship something that I know will let me down when I could be worship a God that I know never will?
  
• Being a lifelong Vanderbilt fan helps you to accept the cross.
  
• (After a several hour rain delay at Auburn) “The players just ran out of the tunnel and we started the game. Very minimalist. Like letting Primitive Baptist run your pregame.
  
• Thursday night football in a word is, unnatural…. It’s like Billy Graham at Hooters.
  
• (At South Carolina) BBQ chicken was on the menu, which seemed a little cannibalistic for USC fans.
  
• Michael’s cable did not pick up the Auburn game, which was apparently on ESPN-AL Jazeera.
  
• Plus Many More
  

I highly recommend this book as the college football season approaches.

Lovin’ Chick-fil-A

The video at the bottom of this post has inspired me to give testimony to the impact Chick-fil-A has had on my life. My first memories of Chick-fil-A were from trips as a kid to the Metro-Center Mall in Jackson. It was the first place I had ever heard of a chicken nugget? After getting braces on my teeth in the 7^th grade, I tried to eat my first meal with them at Chick-fil-A. I remember the pain of biting down for the first time, but the taste of their chicken seemed to numb the pain. Later Chick-fil-A restaurants made their wait to Hattiesburg. I believe the first one was in the Clover-Leaf Mall in the late 80’s. Another one came when the Turtle Creek mail opened around 1993-94, and then the final Restaurant that is opened on Highway 98 West.

Recently I was making one of my weekly visits (one of the rare times without the family) when I had an older gentleman, name tag, “Jim” asked, “How may I help you sir?” Jim went on to make me feel like a million dollars as I placed my order with words like, “Thank You”, “Sir”, “Please”. At one point his humble demeanor over took me and I had a great urge to jump behind the counter and hug the man, but logic prevailed and I decided to stay put. But I had to do something to show my appreciation for his kindness, so I struck up a conversation with him about the Chick-fil-a 2009 coupon calendar. He told me how wonderful they were and I said “I’ll take one!” So if you ever visit the Hwy 98 Chick-fil-A look for the name tag that reads, “Jim” and get in his line. You will not be disappointed!

Rap a Gift for Operation Christmas Child

Here is a u-tube vid of some of my ole school homies kickin’ it for the LORD JC and raising the roof for Mr. FG and the OCC Ministry.  So watch the West Side Boyz drop da hook “get it filled” for some kid candy.   So let me give a shout out to da boyz:  Vanilla T (Tony Merida), Flava-Bashan (Philip Wood), Memphis Posse Head (Rick Morton), 99 cent (Chad Lynn), Busta-Booty (Scott Phaff), and Yo-Yo Double A (Andy Adkinson).

Special Guest appearces by Amy T, Philip “Saturday Night” Slusher, and PK Worship P. Produced and edited by Dangerous Dan D.

Peace Out, T-Dog

Milli Vanilli and Worship

While reading Mark Batterson’s book, Wild Goose Chase, I came across a sentence that brought Milli Vanilli to mind. In chapter three of the book Batterson talks about how the routine things of life can keep us from worshiping God. ON page 59 it reads,

 

God doesn’t want to be lip-synced. He wants to be worshiped. When we worship out of memory, it must sound to God like a broken record. Maybe that’s why the psalms exhort us no fewer than six times to sing a new song. We need new words, new postures, new thoughts, and new feelings. Why Because God wants to be more than a memory!

Just like everyone I can often fall into the routine of worshiping God. It’s not that God gets stale; it’s that my approach to Him does. I often forget it’s a personal relationship with God that I’m after, not a business deal. I’m not in contract with God; He is in covenant with me. So like Milli Vanilli we can fake it for awhile, but eventually the song is going to get stuck. And there we are, on the stage of life, singing like we are the real deal, but everyone (including ourselves) discovers that we are not. If you are in a rut, you gotta change your approach. Find a new song, read some unfamiliar books of the Bible, and stop just going through the motions. God is waiting on you. “Girl you know it’s true!”

The Blimp

Early last week I saw the Goodyear blimpflying over Hattiesburg. I assumed they had gotten lost on their way to the LSU game. Later in the week they were still hovering around town. Then a friend of mine mentioned that they were in town for the week and would be at the airport on Saturday morning. We are always looking for free/cheep fun so we got up Saturday morning and headed to the airport. Once we arrived we got out and took some photos in front of the blimp. I’m not sure why the kids where holding their ears it the photo, it wasn’t that loud.

Then up pulls a RV/tour bus and off steps about 20 guys in white shirts. Some looked to be pilots, but most of these guys looked like they were Elvis impersonators. I’m not making this up; several had big hair with side burns and dark glasses. Next they simultaneously lit up cigarettes (Keep in mind we were a few hundred yards away from the big balloon filled with some type of flammable gas). I thought to myself; we’re going to see a reenactment of the Hindenburgin Hattiesburg.

Once they finished smoking, they all walked out to the blimp. Only a few of the guys (the pilots) got inside while the rest of the guys grabbed the ropes that were holding it to the ground.

Next a Goodyear van pulled up under the balloon and out stepped the contestant winners who would have a chance to fly around on the blimp. Then a guy climbs a 20 ft pole in from of the blimp and unties the final rope. They fired up the engines and they were off; slowly. We returned to the Goodyear tent on the airfield and left with an inflatable mini-blimp, blimp erasers, blimp pens, and of course blimp key chains. Oh the humanity!

UPDATE: My friend Matt assured me that I had nothing to worry about when it came to the blimp catching on fire.  He referred me to this Mythbusters episode.

Take the Reel

The two reasons I’m posting this video are:
1.  This is first video I’ve posted to my blog, so its kinda of a test.
2. This is my kind of humor!  Unfortuanatly I can’t get the lyrics out of my head.